More Warwickshire communities to get faster fibre broadband for the first time to due £10 million expansion of CSW Broadband
Thousands more households and businesses across Warwickshire will be able to access faster fibre broadband for the first time as a result of a multi-million pound expansion of the CSW Broadband programme, lead partners Warwickshire County Council and BT announced today.
Blackwell, Deppers Bridge, Harborough Magna, Model Village, Monks Kirby, Shawbury, Shustoke, Sutton-under-Brailes and Water Orton will be among the communities to benefit.
Engineers from Openreach – BT’s local network business – are due to begin installing the new network this week as part of the £10 million expansion and the first households and businesses will be able to get fibre broadband from the Summer.
At the same time, the high-speed technology will be rolled out to additional areas of Bidford-upon-Avon, Ettington, Marlcliff and Nether Whitacre, which already have some fibre broadband.
It’s two years since the CSW Broadband partnership started connecting the first premises to faster fibre. Since then, Openreach engineers have installed around 250 new road-side cabinets, making fibre available to more than 45,000homes and businesses.
Tonino Ciuffini, head of service for Warwickshire County Council, said: “This is really good news. As the CSW Broadband roll-out progresses, we are reaching deeper into the rural areas and these are just the latest communities to benefit from access to the fibre network. Many people take high-speed internet for granted these days, and forget that there are many communities where this is simply not possible. That is why the investment by Warwickshire County Council is so important for the social and economic wellbeing of our rural communities.”
Bill Murphy, BT’s managing director of next generation access, said: “As a result of the excellent progress being made by our project teams, we’re seeing the number of communities able to access the technology for the first time to continue to rapidly increase.
“Every day we’re hearing how fibre broadband is touching people’s lives in new and exciting ways. The feedback from businesses and households opting to upgrade is extremely positive, especially here in Warwickshire, where take-up of fibre broadband is higher than average at around 30 per cent.”
Local people can get more information and updates from the CSW Broadband website – www.cswbroadband.org.uk – and via Twitter and Facebook.
It’s an ‘opt in’ service, but because the network is being installed by Openreach it is ‘open’, so residents and businesses wanting to upgrade have a choice of fibre broadband service providers, with more than 140 now operating in the UK. Local people choosing to upgrade will be able to get download speeds of up to 80 megabits (Mbps) and uploads of up to 20Mbps*.
Note to Editors
The expansion of the CSW Broadband roll-out is known as Contract 2, Part 1, and was announced in February 2015. The deal was spearheaded by Warwickshire County Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, which are contributing an initial £3.68 million and £0.38 million respectively, with an additional £2.61m from BT and a further £4.06m from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Superfast Extension Programme (SEP).
When complete, it will increase the percentage of homes and businesses able to access high-speed fibre broadband in Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire to nearly 94 per cent when combined with the first phase of the CSW Broadband roll-out already underway and the private sector investments of companies like BT.
The first part of the CSW Broadband roll-out is known as Contract 1.
As the property-level mapping is still in development, the CSW Broadband team is asking people to check the map at www.cswbroadband.org.uk and to report any discrepancies by using the simple online form.
*These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
---ends---
Issued by Warwickshire County Council and BT on behalf of the CSW Broadband partnership.
For more information please contact Leigh Hunt at the CSW Broadband project office on 01926 738339 or email: broadband@cswbroadband.org.uk
Or
Emma Tennant at the BT regional press office on 0800 085 0660 or email: emma.tennant@bt.com Twitter: @EmmaTennantBT
About BT
BT’s purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services. Following the acquisition of EE on 29 January 2016, BT consists principally of six customer-facing lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Business, BT Consumer, EE, BT Wholesale and Openreach.
For the year ended 31 March 2015, BT Group’s reported revenue was £17,979m with reported profit before taxation of £2,645m.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
For more information, visit www.btplc.com.
All news releases can be accessed at our web site. You can also subscribe to receive all BT announcements here and you can follow us on Twitter here.
